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Cemtrex is engaged in the manufacturing, sale and service of the most advanced instruments, software and systems for monitoring emissions of Greenhouse gases, hazardous gases, particulate and other regulated pollutants used in emissions trading globally.

Cemtrex Inc. announced that it has started its pilot test program to develop its carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology, Carbondox, for application in coal-fired power plants.

“Carbondox technology represents a measurable and significant breakthrough in combating climate change and economically reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants,” said Mr. Arun Govil, CEO & President of Cemtrex Inc. “Our test program investigates the implementation and optimization of a corona-catalyst and bicarbonate mechanisms in an aqueous medium for the purpose of CO2 capture from flue gases emitted by coal-fired combustors, post-Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) equipment.”

The CEO has not shared any more details as of now. It appears to me that what they are doing is to essentially turn CO2 into a mineral carbonate for sequestration. Am awaiting further news on Carbondox.

Their findings could lead to power plants efficiently capturing carbon dioxide without using toxic materials.

“The technical challenge of selectively removing carbon dioxide has been overcome,” said Omar M. Yaghi, UCLA’s Christopher S. Foote Professor of Chemistry and co-author of the Science paper. “Now we have structures that can be tailored precisely to capture carbon dioxide and store it like a reservoir, as we have demonstrated. No carbon dioxide escapes. Nothing escapes — unless you want it to do so. We believe this to be a turning point in capturing carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere.”

The carbon dioxide is captured using a new class of materials designed by Yaghi and his group called zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, or ZIFs. These are porous and chemically robust structures, with large surface areas, that can be heated to high temperatures without decomposition and boiled in water or organic solvents for a week and still remain stable.

“The selectivity of ZIFs to carbon dioxide is unparalleled by any other material,” according a team member. The inside of a ZIF can store gas molecules. Flaps that behave like the chemical equivalent of a revolving door allow certain molecules — in this case, carbon dioxide — to pass through and enter the reservoir while blocking larger molecules or molecules of different shapes.

Currently, the process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants involves the use of toxic materials and requires 20 to 30 percent of the plant’s energy output. By contrast, ZIFs can pluck carbon dioxide from other gases that are emitted and can store five times more carbon dioxide than the porous carbon materials that represent the current state-of-art.

ScottishPower claims to have made a breakthrough in reducing the amount of energy required to separate carbon emissions at its coal-fired Longannet Power Station.

The testing at Longannet to assess the performance of the amine capture plant under a range of operating conditions has been underway since May this year.

Employing a mixture of process improvements and low energy solvents, technicians from ScottishPower and partner company Aker Clean Carbon say they has managed to reduce energy consumption by around a third.

Testing will continue for some more time, but the company believes the technology is ready for a full-scale demonstration.

A new type of membrane has been internationally patented by researchers at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The membrane is made from a plastic material that has been structured by means of nanotechnology. It catches CO2 while other waste gases pass freely.

According to the scientists, the technology is effective, inexpensive and eco-friendly, and can be used for practically all types of CO2 removal from other gases. Its effectiveness increases proportionally to the concentration of CO2 in the gas.

This method, known as facilitated transport, is comparable to the way human lungs get rid of CO2 when we breathe: it is both a complex and an effective mechanism.

Ok, so we are not the first to raise this topic – “could storing massive quantities of CO2 underground result in earthquakes?”.

Many folks have asked this before, and the experts in the CCS industry have assured us that when done properly (specifically, when the injection of CO2 is done at the proper rate and pressure and when proper monitoring mechanisms are in place), there is no danger whatsoever of earthquakes happening as a result of CO2 injection into the ground.

Such assurances have obviously not satisfied everyone.

A team of researchers from the University of Calgary are studying the impact of the oil and gas industry and the CO2 burial on seismic activity.

Specifically, this team from the University of Calgary is asking if such activities could cause earthquakes in the normally calm crust of Alberta?

Most tremors in Alberta are too small to notice but sizable earthquakes do occur — as in 2001, when a 5.4-magnitude event rocked the northern Dawson Creek area and was felt as far south as Edmonton.

Scientists at the U of C’s geoscience department hope to learn more about what causes these poorly understood subterranean movements by installing a series of monitoring devices across Alberta.

The Alberta government has promised $2 billion toward carbon capture technologies, with the federal government earmarking $1 billion toward a clean-energy fund.

The project is the second of its kind launched this year in Alberta. The U of C’s stations can send data over the Internet, where it will be accessible to people all over the world. So, we can all hope to understand more about this important aspect.

I also thought I’d get some answers to the question “Can CO2 burial underground cause earthquakes?”

Here are two answers, one from The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany and the other from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

”
BGR, Germany – While injecting the CO2 into the geological reservoir, one of the key issues is pressure control. The injection process has to be constantly monitored and controlled so that the overlying seal rock does not crack. Because earthquakes are caused by such cracks, best practice injection procedures would effectively prevent them from happening ( Link)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division – “During the 1950s it was discovered that injection of fluids at high pressures could cause small-to-medium-sized earthquakes. Subsequent scientific studies identified “hydrofracturing”, slippage along pre-existing fractures, and fault activation as the causes for these earthquakes. Based on understanding local and regional stresses in the earth’s crust, guidelines have been developed to prevent injection-induced microseismicity. Now, regulatory agencies limit injection rates and pressures to avoid unintentional hydrofracturing. Microseismic monitoring is often done early in a project to establish operational parameters for injection. Carbon dioxide storage projects would operate under similar guidelines, thus eliminating concerns about causing earthquakes. In addition, CO2-EOR and natural gas storage projects operate without generating significant seismic events.” (Link, Page 23, )

OK, this post is not exactly about CCS at power plants, but it is about CCS for – ships, of all things!

Apparently, maritime CO2 emissions are about 1000 million tons per year (1 gigaton), about 2.5% of total CO2 emissions produced by all human activities – total is about 40 Giga tons per year from all anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

A new R&D project aims to develop blueprint designs for on-ship carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce maritime greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, Det Norske Veritas AS, a leading maritime classification society has joined with the consultant group Process Systems Enterprise Ltd (PSE).

This maritime CCS project aims to develop a blueprint design for an on-board process for chemical capture and temporary storage of CO2 for ships in transit until discharge into transmission and storage infrastructures at the next suitable port.